<TITLE>Overview -- /UserGuide</TITLE>
<NEXTID 2>
<H1>MAILBASE COMMANDS</H1>Mailbase responds to commands sent as electronic mail messages to
the address 'mailbase@uk.ac.newcastle'<P>
 It is *important* that commands be sent *only* to this address! Do
not send commands to any of the mail distribution lists (for example,
the lis-it list mentioned above) which are managed by Mailbase.<P>
Commands sent to Mailbase are executed in sequence until a terminator,
or an error, is found.  A mail message reporting success or failure
is then returned to you.  More than one command may appear in any
one mail message to Mailbase, but each command must be on a separate
line. Except when stated otherwise, commands may appear in any order,
and they may be in UPPER, lower, or MiXeD case.<P>
 Problems or queries relating to Mailbase commands should be sent
as an electronic mail message to 'mailbase-request@uk.ac.newcastle'
(see "<A NAME=1 HREF=Addresses.html>Addresses</A>").<P>
 The Mailbase commands are:<P>
 
<XMP>   help                           review <listname>
   describe <commandname>         send <listname> <filename>
   index [<listname>]             statistics [command | list]
   line-limit <number>            stop
   listme                         subscribe <listname> <firstname> <lastname>
   lists [full]                   unsubscribe <listname>
 
</XMP>These are described in full below, and also in the Mailbase Reference<P>
Card.
<XMP> 
</XMP>
<H2>2.1 Getting Help from Mailbase</H2>
<XMP> 
</XMP>If you already use Mailbase (by being a member of a list), sending
an electronic mail message containing the command help to Mailbase
will result in a brief summary of Mailbase commands being sent to
you by return.  If you do not already use Mailbase, the help command
will send you a copy of this, the User Guide.
<XMP> 
</XMP>If you already use Mailbase and you wish to obtain a copy of this
User Guide by electronic mail, send this command to Mailbase
<XMP> 
      			send mailbase userhelp
 
</XMP>Information about a specific command may be retrieved by sending a
'describe' command.<P>
 For example, sending the command 'describe describe' to Mailbase
will result in the following message being sent to you
<XMP> 
   Name:      describe
   Example:   describe subscribe
   Syntax:    describe command
   Description:   This command gives a description of individual Mailbase
                  commands. The word "describe"  may be abbreviated to "des".
   See also:   "help"
 
</XMP>Problems or queries that require human intervention should be addressed
to mailbase-request@uk.ac.newcastle
<XMP> 
 
</XMP>
<H2>2.2 Information on Current Discussions</H2>
<XMP> 
</XMP>To find out the names of the discussion lists currently managed by
Mailbase, send the command 'lists' or 'lists full'.  The command alone
will return a list of all the current Mailbase discussion lists; the
option 'full' adds a short description of each one.<P>
More detailed information about an individual list may be obtained
by sending a 'review' command.  For example,
<XMP> 
      review lis-it
 
</XMP>returns the names of owners and members of the list, a brief description
of the list's purpose and details about its access facilities, which
are marked 'yes' if they are available to non-members and 'no' if
not. These are:
<DL>
<DT>Subscribe direct:
<DD> If 'no', non-members must send an e-mail message
to the list owner, asking to be added to the list.
<DT> Contribute mail:
<DD> If 'no', you must join the list before sending mail
to it.
<DT> Request review:
<DD> If 'no', you must join the list in order to request
review information.
<DT> Request files:
<DD> If 'no', you must join the list in order to retrieve
any files which are associated with it.
<DT> Archive:
<DD> If 'no', list contributions are not stored in an archive
file.
</DL>

<XMP> 
 
</XMP>
<H2>2.3 Subscribing to Discussions</H2>
<XMP> 
</XMP>Note: 'subscribe' is the name chosen for the command: it does not
mean that you have to pay a subscription fee!<P>
 If the list you wish to join is open for direct subscription, send
the following command to Mailbase
<XMP> 
      subscribe <listname> <firstname> <surname>
 
</XMP>For example,
<XMP> 
      subscribe lis-it Fred Smith
 
</XMP>would add your name (Fred Smith) and mail address (taken from your
message header) to the lis-it discussion list.<P>
 If the list you wish to use is closed for direct subscription, you
will be asked to send a message to
<XMP> 
      <listname>-request@uk.ac.newcastle
 
</XMP>(where listname is the chosen list).  For example: lis-it-request@uk.ac.newcastle
<XMP> 
 
</XMP>
<H2>2.4 Checking your Membership of Discussion Lists</H2>
<XMP> 
</XMP>To obtain a list of the discussion lists of which you are a member,
send the following command to Mailbase
<XMP> 
      listme
 
 
</XMP>
<H2>2.5 Leaving Discussions</H2>
<XMP> 
</XMP>To leave a discussion list, send an 'unsubscribe' command to Mailbase.
For example,
<XMP> 
      unsubscribe lis-it
 
</XMP>would remove your name from the lis-it list.
<XMP> 
 
</XMP>
<H2>2.6 Retrieving Files via Electronic Mail</H2>
<XMP> 
</XMP>Many discussion lists have files associated with them.  To find out
which lists these are, send the following command to Mailbase
<XMP> 
      index
 
</XMP>To find out what files are associated with a particular list, attach
the list name to the command.  For example,
<XMP> 
      index lis-it
 
</XMP>will tell you which files are associated with the lis-it list. The
index contains information about the size of files.  The files themselves
may be retrieved with the command
<XMP> 
      send <listname> <filename>
 
</XMP>For example,
<XMP> 
      send lis-it 12-1990
 
</XMP>will retrieve the file called 12-1990 (the archive file containing
all contributions sent to this list during December 1990) which belongs
to the lis-it list.  We recommend that you retrieve and read some
archive files before you start contributing to discussions.<P>
If a file is larger than 100,000 characters (approximately 5000 lines),
it may be necessary to retrieve it in several pieces.  Do this by
preceding the send command with a 'line-limit' command. For example,
<XMP> 
      line-limit 2000
      send nisp assess.txt
 
</XMP>would retrieve the file 'assess.txt', associated with the  nisp  list,
in the form of several pieces, each containing a maximum of 2000 lines.
<XMP> 
 
</XMP>
<H2>2.7 Information on Use of Mailbase</H2>
<XMP> 
</XMP>To obtain some statistical information about the use which has been
made of Mailbase, use the statistics command, which has the form
<XMP> 
      statistics [ command | list ]
 
</XMP>The 'command' option gives statistics about commands and 'list' about
lists. If no options are given you will receive both command and list
information.
<XMP> 
 
</XMP>
<H2>2.8 Mail with Signatures</H2>
<XMP> 
</XMP>If your electronic mail messages end with a signature, terminate your
Mailbase commands with the command
<XMP> 
      stop
 
</XMP>This prevents Mailbase from attempting to interpret your signature
as a series of commands.
<XMP> 
</XMP>